Handling hooks



S. l. TODER HANDLING HOOKS Oct. 28, 1958 Filed Oct. 4, 1954 INVENTOR .5: I TODR W ATTORNEY United States Patent Electric Company, Incorporated, New York, N. Y., a corporation of New York Application October 4, 1954, Serial No. 459,883

2 Claims. (Cl. 294-81) This invention relates to handling hooks particularly those employed in lifting and transporting articles.

The conventional lifting and transporting trucks employed particularly in factories for transporting skids and other article supporting means from one place to another have spaced forks adapted to move beneath and elevate the skids and articles free of the floor for transportation to different positions or to different elevations for the purpose of stacking the skids and articles.

However, there are certain types of heavy articles or units which cannot be transported or stacked in this manner. Certain articles of this type which are too heavy to be lifted manually have, on the tops thereof, spaced inverted U-shaped handles which provide insufficient space for the conventional forks of lifting trucks. The spaced positions of the handles make it impossible for any single attachment to be employed due to the fact that such an attachment connected with either handle would unbalance the article when raised and prevent accurate stacking of such articles. Furthermore, in some cases such handles are of considerable length and unless a positive gripping connection is made therewith the attachment may slip during the lifting and transporting of the articles.

The object of the invention is a handling hook which is durable, simple in structure and adapted for easy and firm attachment to handles of articles.

With this and other objects in view, the invention comprises a handling hook including a ring-like element with an opening in one side thereof to receive an inverted U-shaped handle of an article and a member fixed to the element to cooperate therewith to grip the handle when the element is raised to lift the article.

In the present embodiment of the invention, there are four handling hooks supported by parallel spaced rods mounted in the forks of a lift truck. The ring-like elements have their arcuate members welded thereto above the openings therein so that they may be attached to the handles at the respective corners thereof, that is, at the junctures of the central portions of the handles and their respective leg portions. When the handling hooks are raised, forces will be applied to the elements tending to move them vertically, thus creating gripping connections with the various portions of the handles between the elements and the ends of their arcuate or curved members.

Other objects and advantages will be apparent from the following detailed description when considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawing, wherein:

Fig. 1 is a side elevational view of a set of the handling Patented Oct. 28, 1958 ICC includes a short portion 16 and a long portion 17 terminating in ends 18 and 19. If desired, the handling books 10 maybe identical, or formed in. sets as illustrated in Fig. 1, where the long portions 17 in each pair extend toward each other.

In the present embodiment of the invention, pairs of the handling hooks 10are provided with rings 20 connected to the upper portions of their respective elements 11 and provided with suitable links 21 connecting them to rings 22. The pairs of rings 22 are supported by spaced rods 23 extending through forks 24 of a lift truck (not shown). The rods 23, as shown in Fig. 1, are positioned a given distance apart which distance is shorter than the lengths of the spaced parallel handles 25 of articles 26. Only one handle 25 is shown on the article 26 in the drawing but it should be understood that there are two handles identical in structure and spaced a given distance apart. Furthermore, the four handling hooks 10 only two of which are shown are spaced in their respective pairs on the rods 23 comparable to the spacing of the handles 25.

Considering now the function and purpose of the general structure of the handling hooks 10, it will be apparent from viewing Fig. 1 that the handling hooks may be attached to or removed from the handles 25 only at the junctures of their central portions and their respective legs. This is due in each instance to the position of the opening 12 in the ring-like element 11 with respect to the ends 18 and 19 of the member 14 preventing the straight central portion of either handle from entering the opening. -However, the contours of the element 11 and the member 14 permit the operator to readily attach the handling hooks 10 to their respective corners of the handles 25. When this has been accomplished, the operator of the lift truck may cause the forks 24 to move upwardly. Upward movement of the forks 24 will cause the handling hooks to raise the article 26 from the floor, placing the weight of the article on the handling hooks whereby the connections through the rings 20 and 22 and the links 21 with the elements 11 will tend to move the handling hooks in each pair toward each other. If the members 14 were removed leaving only the elements 11, there would not be a firm and positive connection with the handles of the article and the weight of the article would cause movement of the elements 11 into positions in general alignment with their rods 23. These movements of the elements are stopped short of those positions by the curved members 14. During the start of these movements the edges 19 of the long portions 17 of the members may ride on the central portions of the handles 25 while the edges 18 of the shorter portions attempt to move around the corners of the handles. The term may ride is used in the immediately preceding sentence in describing the actions of the edges 19 for the reason that the actions of the members 14 depend largely on the speed of applying the lifting force. If the lifting force is applied slowly the weight of the long portions 17 may cause the edges 19 to move on the central portion of each handle without any digging action. However, if this substantially vertical lifting force is applied rapidly, there is a tendency for the edges 19 to be raised from their central handle portions until their edges 18 near the limits in their sliding movements allowed by their elements 11, at which time the edges 19 will be forced rapidly into engagement with their central handleportions. This action creates a positive grip of the spaced portions of the handles through the lower portions of the elements 11 on one side and the ends 18 and 19 of the members on the other side. With this arrangement the article 26 may be raised and transported to any position with a balanced lifting force shared by the four handling hooks free of any possibility of the handling 3 hooks shifting on the handles 25 of the article. Furthermore, the moment the article 26 comes to rest at its new location and the lifting force is removed from the handling hooks, they may be removed readily from the handles 25 for attachment to the handles of another article.

It is to be understood that the above described arrangements are simply illustrative of the application of the principles of the invention. Numerous other arrangements may be readily devised by those skilled in the art which will embody the principles of the invention and fall within the spirit and scope thereof.

What is claimed is:

1. A handling hook comprising a rigid substantially C- shaped element with an opening in one side thereof between top and bottomends of the element to receive an inverted U-shaped rigid handle of a given thickness having bent corners disposed between legs and a straight central portion, for an article, and an elongate rigid member having a top surface, a bottom surface, side surfaces, end surfaces and edges interposed between the end surfaces and the bottom surface, the member having a bend therein disposed intermediate its end surfaces to position said edges so that a distance measured perpendicularly from a plane, common to both edges, to the farthest portion of the bottom surface of the bend will be less than the distance between the ends of the element at the opening plus the thickness of the handle, the member extending longitudinally through the element to locate said farthest portion of the bottom surface of the bend transversely between the top end of the element and an opposing portion of the element Where the adjacent portions of the side surfaces are-rigidly secured leaving a loop of the element above the member sufficiently large for connection with a lifting means and positioning the edges on opposing sides of the opening of the element so that their common plane will be disposed a distance from a parallel plane containing the lower end of the element less than the thickness of the handle so that the edges will hold all portions of the handle from entering the opening of the element except a corner of the handle.

2. A handling hook comprising a rigid substantially C- shaped element with an opening in one side thereof between top and bottom ends of the element to receive an inverted U-shaped rigid handle of a given thickness having bent corners disposed between legs and a straight central portion, for an article, and an elongate rigid member having a top surface, a bottom surface, side surfaces, end surfaces and edges interposed between the end surfaces and the bottom surface, the member having a bend therein disposed intermediate its end surfaces to position said edges so that a distance measured perpendicularly from a plane, common to both edges, to the farthest portion of the bottom surface of the bend Will be less than the distance between the ends of the element at the opening plus the thickness of the handle, the member extending longitudinally through the element to locate said farthest portion of the bottom surface of the bend transversely between the top end of the element and an opposing portion of the element where the adjacent portions of the side surfaces are rigidly secured, leaving a loop of the element above the member sufficiently large for connection with a lifting means and positioning the edges on opposing sides of the opening of the element so that their common plane will be disposed a distance from a parallel plane containing the lower end of the element less than the thickness of the handle so that the edges will hold all portions of the handle from entering the opening of the element except a corner of the handle, the plane of the edges also being positioned with respect to the inner bottom portion of the element which supports the handle so thatany force tending to lift the article and handle by the element will cause the edges to remain on their respective sides of the corner of the handle and closely engage the handle.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,305,135 Loney May 27, 1919 1,319,324 Clement Oct. 21, 1919 1,479,711 Haarberg Jan. 1, 1924 1,605,187 Holt Nov. 2, 1926 1,781,335 Lyons Nov. 11, 1930 2,696,317 Toffolon Dec. 7, 1954 FOREIGN PATENTS 377,866 Great Britain Aug. 4, 1932 

